1880's

TWENTY-ONE ELEPHANTS AND STIL STANDINGUpon completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, P.T. Barnum and his twenty-one elephants parade across to prove to everyone that the bridge is safe.

2005

unpaged

Strand, Keith

GRANDFATHER'S CHRISTMAS TREEA grandfather tells how the family's Christmas tradition of placing a carved wooden nest with a pair of geese and their babies in the large spruce tree started years ago when his parents first settled in Colorado. 1886.

THE BIG BALLOON RACEAriel almost causes her famous mother to lose a balloon race and
then helps her win it. This book is based on stories about the famous Myers
family. Professor Carl Myers was an inventor and balloon maker. On Balloon
Farm in Mohawk Valley, New York, he made balloons for his wife, the fearless
and beautiful aeronaut Carlotta. She was the most expert and popular balloonist
in America during the 1880's. Carlotta made more ascensions in hydrogen
balloons than any other aeronaut of her time. She lived from 1849-1932. Her
daughter, Ariel, became a balloonist too. She rode a Sky Cycle invented by
her father. Ariel pedaled a dirigible inside huge tents and auditoriums across
the country.

1981

62 p.

Welch, Catherine

DANGER AT THE BREAKERBecause of family need, an eight-year-old coal miner's son
in 1885 leaves school to work at the mines, where he learns about
the dangers of a coal mine on his first day on the job. Northeastern Pennsylvania.

ABIGAIL TAKES THE WHEELWhen the first mate of the freight boat Neptune falls ill, it is up to Abigail , the captain’s daughter, to steer the ship up the Hudson River from New Jersey to New York City. 1880.

1999

60 p.

Bildner, Phil

TWENTY-ONE ELEPHANTS 1884. Having watched it being built, Hannah longs to cross the Brooklyn Bridge and teams up with P.T. Barnum and his elephants to prove its safety in this title that includes panoramic views and historical tidbits about Brooklyn and the bridge.

2004

unpaged

Bunting, Eve

CHEYENNE AGAINIn the late 1880's, a Cheyenne boy named Young Bull is taken
to a boarding school to learn the white man's ways.

1995

unpaged

Dunlap, Julie

JOHN MUIR AND STICKEENAN ICY ADVENTURE WITH A NO-GOOD DOG In 1880, John Muir takes a trip to Alaska mapping glaciers with a no-good dog and gets caught in a storm. He and Stickeen, the dog, survive by helping one another.

2004

unpaged

Figley, Marty

THE SCHOOLCHILDREN'S BLIZZARADIn 1888, Sarah, her younger sister Annie, and their classmates survive a sudden Nebraska blizzard because of the actions of their schoolteacher. Based on the true story of schoolteacher Minnie Freeman. (On My Own History)

2004

48 p.

Gross, Virginia

THE DAY IT RAINED FOREVEROnce Upon America series A story of the Johnstown Flood.
Christina, Frederick and their father wait anxiously to hear news of their
mother who has gone to help with a birth when the huge dam behind Lake
Conemaugh breaks. Heavy rains continue resulting in a flood killing more
than 2000 people. 1889, Johnstown, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas.

1991

48 p.

Harvey, Brett

SYBIL'S NIGHT RIDE 9-year-old Elenore describes her experiences living with her family
in the Dakota Territory in the 1880's.

1986

unpaged

Isaacs, Anne

TREEHOUSE TALESThree chapters relate the experiences and adventures of three 1880's
Pennsylvania farm children in their family tree house, which serves as
a refuge, a source of adventure, a lookout post, and a frightening
dragon's lair.

1997

85 p.

Lawlor, Laurie

ADDIE’S FOREVER FRIEND 1880's Iowa and Dakota Territory. While her father is looking for
a homestead in the Dakotas, Addie and her mother and brothers spend the
summer with her aunt and uncle in Sabula, Iowa, where Addie and her best
friend have an exciting adventure on the Fourth of July.

1997

124 p.

Lawlor, Laurie

ADDIE’S LONG SUMMER 12-year-old Addie eagerly awaits her cousins summer visit to her prairie home but, once they arrive, finds things much more complicated than she ever imagined.

1992

172 p.

McCully, Emily

THE BALLOT BOX BATTLE Elizabeth Cady Stanton explains how she came to feel so strongly
about a woman's right to vote through this explanation of her
childhood to a young, horse-riding protégé. 1880's.

1996

unpaged

Moskin, Marietta

DAY OF THE BLIZZARD Eager to accomplish an errand for her sick mother, Katie braves
one of New York City's severest snowstorms in history, the blizzard of 1888.

SILVER DOLLAR GIRLIn 1885, unhappy living with her aunt and uncle in Pittsburgh, Valentine Harper disguises herself as a boy and runs away to Colorado determined to find her father, who has gone there in search of gold.

2000

191 p.

Beatty, Patricia

THE NICKEL-PLATED BEAUTY In the Washington Territory of 1886, the seven resourceful
Kimball children devote themselves to earning enough money to buy
their mother a new stove.

1964

225 p.

Burks, Brian

RUNS WITH HORSES 16 years old in 1886, Run with Horses trains to become a warrior
with Geranium’s band of Apaches in the American Southwest.

1995

116 p.

Clark, Clara

HATTIE ON HER WAY sequel to HILL HAWK HATTIE1883 New York. Now that Pa has plunked her down at Grandmother's in Kingston to get a good education like Ma, Hattie Belle Basket has traded her rough boy's overalls for a blue checked dress that matches her eyes. But prettying up her rustic Hill Hawk ways is not so easy, and Hattie is sure she will never be at home in this fancy gingerbread house, where her prim grandmother and the buzzardlike cook continually remind her she can't compare with her sweet, beloved late mother. Even her tutor, Horace Bottle, seems more interested in food than he is in teaching. And now the stuck-up girl next door is taunting her-with rumors that a sinister fate has befallen Hattie's absent grandfather. Could someone in Grandmother's house be harboring an unspeakable secret?

2005

177 p.

Conrad, Pam

MY DANIEL 1885 Nebraska. Julia Create and her brother Daniel are
living on a lonely farm. Daniel, who has always been interested in
fossils, is inspired by the tales of a pair of dinosaur prospectors to
search for his very own cache of dinosaur bones. Once he has found
them, his next challenge is to preserve them for an honorable paleontologist
by keeping them away from a thief and possible murderer.

1989

137 p.

Fleischman, Sid

MR. MYSTERIOUS AND COMPANY The adventures of a family of magicians traveling across the western
deserts and plains in the 1880s.

1997

154 p.

Fletcher, Susan

WALK ACROSS THE SEA
1886, Crescent City, California, when Chinese immigrants are being driven out or even killed for fear they will take jobs from whites, 15-year-old Eliza Jane McCully defies the townspeople and her lighthouse-keeper father to help a Chinese boy who has been kind to her.

2001

207 p.

Hart, Alison

DANGER AT THE WILD WEST SHOWAmerican Girl History Mysteries12-year-old Rose sets out to prove her brother's innocence when he is accused of shooting a politician during a Wild West show performance in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1886.

2003

155 p.

Hill, Donna

SHIPWRECK SEASON
In 1880, forced to work with his uncle at a lifeguard station on Cape Cod,
16-year-old Daniel finds himself maturing as he encounters unexpected comradeship,
challenges, and danger.

1998

215 p.

Holland, Isabelle

PAPERBOY
In 1881 in New York City, 12-year-old Kevin O'Donnell, ever conscious
of the prejudice against the Irish poor, struggles to support his sick father and
young sister by working as a messenger for a prominent newspaper but finds
his job threatened when he is falsely accused of stealing from his employer.

1999

137 p.

Lawlor, Laurie

GEORGE ON HIS OWN
Addie’s 12-year-old brother, George, doesn’t think anyone appreciates his
musical talent, and when his father threatens to sell his trombone, George decides to
run away from the family’s prairie home. 1887.

1993

191 p.

Martin, Nora

FLIGHT OF THE FISHERBIRD
In 1889, in the islands off the coast of Washington State, thirteen-year-old Clementine pulls a nearly drowned Chinese man out of the sea and begins to suspect that her beloved uncle may have been involved in his attempted murder.

2003

150 p.

Miller, Susan

RACHEL AND THE RIOTSisters in Time seriesThe Labor Movement Divides a Family Conflicting positions concening a local labor union divide Rachel's family in late nineteenth-century Minneapolis. Can living the Christian life help her to heal her family?

2004

142 p.

McKissack, Patricia

RUN AWAY HOME
In 1886 in Alabama, an 11-year-old African-American girl and her
family befriend and give refuge to a runaway Apache boy.

1997

170 p.

Myers, Walter Dean

THE RIGHTEOUS REVENGE OF ARTEMIS BONNER
15-year-old Artemis journeys from New York City
To Tombstone, Arizona in 1880, to avenge the murder of his uncle Ugly Ned Bonner
And find the gold mine he sketched from memory as he lingered on his deathbed.

1992

140 p.

Oswald, Nancy

NOTHING HERE BUT STONES In 1882, ten-year-old Emma and her family, along with other Russian Jewish immigrants, arrive in Cotopaxi, Colorado, where they face inhospitable conditions as they attempt to start an agricultural colony, and lonely Emma is comforted by the horse whose life she saved.

2004

215 p.

Reich, Susanna

PENELOPE BAILEY TAKES THE STAGE Against the wishes of her disapproving aunt, with whom she lives in 1889 San Francisco while her parents are on a scientific expedition, eleven-year-old Penny tries to prepare herself for an acting career.

2006

198 p.

Robinet, Harriet

MISSING FROM HAYMARKET SQUARE
Three children in Chicago in 1886 experience the Haymarket Riot in response to exploitative working conditions.

2001

142 p.

Seely, Debra

GRASSLANDSIn the 1880's, 13-year-old Thomas moves west from the aristocratic Virginia home of his grandparents to a poor Kansas farm to live with a father he barely remembers and his new stepfamily.

2002

164 p.

Seely, Debra

THE LAST OF THE ROUNDUP BOYSA Companion Book To GrasslandsIn 1886 in Kansas, 17-year-old Tom, the son of a poor farmer, is hired as a cowboy on a cattle ranch and faces the challenges of both herding work and a forbidden romance with 16-year-old Evie, the ranch owner's independently-minded daughter.

2004

230 p.

Taylor, Mildred

THE LAND
prequel to ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY Paul-Edward, son of a white plantation owner and a slave mother of African-Indian heritage, follows his dream of owning his own land through hard work and determination. Mississippi 1880’s.

2001

305 p.

Taylor, Theodore

BILLY THE KID1881. Young William Bonney is talked into committing his first train robbery, unaware that his cousin and best friend, Willie Monroe, is now sheriff of the nearest town, and that his fellow robbers are already wanted in four states.

2005

208 p.

Warner, Sally

FINDING HATTIE
In 1882 Hattie, a 14-year-old orphan, joins her cousin Sophie in attending boarding school at Miss Bulkley's Seminary for Young ladies in Tarrytown, New York, and tries to find her place in the world.

2001

221 p.

Whelan, Gloria

MIRANDA'S LAST STAND
Because the Sioux had killed her papa at the Battle of Little Bighorn,
11-year-old Miranda struggles with her mama's prejudiceand her own experiences
with Indians in the Wild West Show. 1885.

1999

131 p.

White, Ellen Emerson

KAIULANI. THE PEOPLE’S PRINCESS
The Royal Diaries Follows the life of Victoria Kaiulani Cleghorn from 1889-1893 as she studies to be a better princess, even as Hawaii’s monarchy and her throne are being undermined by American businessmen.

2001

215 p.

Yep, Laurence

THE TRAITOR
Golden Mountain Chronicles: 1885In 1885, a lonely illegitimate American boy and a lonely Chinese American boy develop an unlikely friendship in the midst of prejudices and racial tension in their coal mining town of Rock Springs, Wyoming.